Stockholm’s Södermalm – So Pretty You Will Fall In Love With It
Södermalm - the island south of Gamla Stan - is one of the prettiest parts of Stockholm. You can easily spend a full day here, even though the city’s most famous tourist attractions are elsewhere. Söder – as locals call it - was an agricultural area until the 17th Century. Later it became Stockholm’s largest working-class neighborhood. Poverty ruled the island for a long time, but in the 1980s it got a better reputation and at the present day it’s even one of the most fashionable places in Sweden. The island is best explored by foot, but if you’re in a hurry I suggest booking one of the
Stockholm bus tours that includes Södermalm.
In recent years however, traffic has grown too much and plans have been made to redesign the area. There you will also find locks (slussen in Swedish) used by ferry boats, a tunnel, a railway, a metro station and a market square.You get a good overview if you take the nearby Katarinahissen, a 19th Century elevator that takes you 38 meters up to a platform from where you can see large parts of the Swedish capital. There's also a restaurant, but you don’t have to visit the restaurant to get up. Just next door is Stockholms Stadsmuseum or city museum, where exhibitions bring local history back to life. Another excellent viewpoint is found west of Slussen. Starting at the road Söder Mälarstrand, and opposite of the floating hostel/hotel Rygerfjord, Monteliusvägen is a footpath up the hill called Mariaberget. Sit on one of the benches there, take a deep breath and enjoy the view. The hilly, cobbled streets in this part of Södermalm like Bastugatan and Brännkyrkagatan, are magnificent. The colorful old houses and peaceful setting – cars are rare here - make you think you are in the open-air museum of Skansen, but no, this is really a residential area.
Söder has many more of these picturesque streets. You will only find them if you leave the island’s main roads. Fjällgatan, east of Slussen, is another example. According to some it’s the city’s most beautiful street, with several wooden 18th Century houses. There’s a popular viewpoint here as well. Not far away and also worth your time is Vita Bergen, a hilltop with 300-year-old working-class homes. Vita Bergen is also the name of the park that surrounds the Sofia Kyrka, a church opened in 1906. With a population of 100,000 Söder is densely populated. Still it seldom feels busy here.
The most beautiful church at Södermalm is the Katarina Kyrka. The 17th Century building was devastated by a fire in 1990, but rebuilt and is now regarded as even more beautiful than before. The island offers more than idyllic charm alone. It also has busy streets with art galleries and trendy boutiques, like Hornsgatan and Götgatan. Go there if you’re looking for special design objects! At the points where Götgatan becomes Götleden you will find Medborgarplatsen, Södermalm’s busy central square. There’s a popular saluhall here, a covered market place with fresh foods. On walking distance from Medborgarplatsen and close to the Södra railway station, you will find modern office and apartment buildings, designed by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill. Impressive stuff! There’s a nice park here as well. At the west point of Södermalm a bridge takes you to Reimersholme, a quiet little island with boat clubs and a few small beaches. Another island connected to Söder is Långholmen, mainly known for its former prison that is now a popular
hostel.
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